It’s December! I’m looking at a Christmas tree, drinking glögg and I just received my first gift – a box with food, tea, and a blanket – from my employer. I don’t really exchange a lot of gifts for Christmas, but I know it’s a big thing in other places. I do enjoy coming up with gift ideas, which I know can be difficult, especially now that most people have too much stuff. So this time I thought I’d try a different kind of post, and share a few inexpensive gift ideas for academics!
1. A domain name
Because many universities still treat emails and websites like they did 20 years ago. It’s easy to buy a domain name yourself, and then transfer it to a different owner. Setting up a website is not required – it’s possible to forward the domain name to an existing website, or use it for multiple email addresses. If you are in the Netherlands, I recommend Versio.
2. A paid subscription to a service
Because there are a lot of great services out there. Despite the monthly cost of about 2 cups of coffee, many people are hesitant to pay for apps, and settle for suboptimal solutions instead. Let them experience how helpful these services can be and buy them a paid subscription for Evernote, Dropbox, or Headspace. My most recent subscription is to focus@will.
3. A voucher for a day at the spa
Because we all need this from time to time. I get mine at Treatwell.
4. Getting things done
Because everybody needs to read this book. An updated edition recently came out, so it’s a good gift even for those who read it already. To save trees, get the electronic or audio version.
5. A wireless presenter
Because when I got one as a PhD student, I felt like a real scientist. I like the ones with a built-in timer, but I have this more affordable version:
6. A snuggie
Because sleeves. Appropriate for Netflix and grading papers.
7. Good tea
Because alcohol and coffee are great gifts too, but we probably are drinking too much of those already.
8. A plant
Because it can cheer up any (office) space.
9. A donation to open science
Because it’s important. A great initiative to donate to is Scihub, but if you don’t pay in bitcoins, you can try Wikipedia instead.
More ideas
If you are looking for more gift ideas for academics, check out my most recent post, and the guides by Tenure She Wrote and Stylish Academic.
Happy holidays!
Thanks to you trying out focus@will
I think I might already be addicted (after a few minutes) — I’m always searching for a working soundtrack to suit my current state, and this seems to fix that problem very well. Thank you!
By the way: Have you considered a search box on your site? I remembered that you had this post, but to find it I had to resort to site:veronikach.com google searches, something not all users will use that readily.
Awesome! I adopted it very quickly as well. I do like listening to something, but couldn’t listen to “normal” music, so focus @ will is perfect. I wish they had a non-email referral program, I believe I’m redirecting quite a few people there 🙂
I’ll get on the search thing right away, faulty assumption that people wouldn’t use it! Thanks!
This is a fantastic list! I love the snuggie best 😀